UZO ADUBA STARS IN THIS HIGHLY ANTICIPATED PRODUCTION

Superstar director Jamie Lloyd presents Benedict Andrews and Andrew Upton's highly acclaimed contemporary adaptation of Jean Genet's The Maids as part of his hot new West End Season. Double Emmy Award Winner Uzo Aduba, (Orange is the New Black) makes her London stage debut, starring alongside Zawe Ashton (Fresh Meat) and Laura Carmichael (Downton Abbey) in this tale of Claire and Solange Papin - two French sisters who serve as maids to a wealthy and beautiful woman, and their constant fantasising each time she is away about the ways they would murder her.

Based upon a true story, Jean Genet's play premiered in 1947, 13 years after the actual murder took place, an act he interpreted as a compelling symbol of class relations. The production was first performed in 2013 in Australia by the Sydney Theatre Company, where Cate Blanchett served as the joint resident artistic director alongside her husband, Andrew Upton.

WHAT IS THE MAIDS ABOUT?

Claire and Solange Papin are two French sisters, serving as maids to a wealthy and beautiful woman. Their relationship with their domineering employer (Laura Carmichael) is unhealthy to say the least, as her treatment of her two employees consciously denigrates and belittles them. The effect this has on their psychological states is alarming. Each time 'Madam' is away they take turns playing the role of their employer, acting out in great detail the various ways they would dispatch her, the line between fantasy and reality blurring more and more each time.

DID YOU KNOW?

Playwright Jean Genet spent much of his young adulthood as a prostitute and thief - crimes he was given a lifetime jail sentence for. However Pablo Picasso, Jean-Paul Sartre and other prominent figures in French society pressed for his release, thanks to the tremendous impact his first novel and early writing had had upon their circles.